Ms. Edwards submitted
the following resolution; which was laid on the table

RESOLUTION

Raising a question of the privileges of the
House.

Whereas an article on December 15, 2011, on the
Politico Pro newspaper website quoted the Representative from
Florida, Mr. West, as saying, If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be
very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda
machine. I think that you have, and let’s be honest, you know, some of the
people in the media are complicit in this, in enabling them to get that type of
message out.;

Whereas Joseph Goebbels served as the Third Reich’s
Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany from
1933–1945;

Whereas Joseph Goebbels openly used xenophobia and racism
in his quest to dehumanize European Jewry;

Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
reports that Joseph Goebbels delivered a passionate anti-Semitic speech
to the Nazi party faithful in Munich on November 9, 1938 … After the speech,
Nazi officials order the Storm Troopers (SA) and other party formations to
attack Jews and to destroy their homes, businesses, and houses of worship. The
violence against Jews lasts into the morning hours of November 10th, and
becomes known as Kristallnacht—the ‘Night of Broken Glass’. Several dozen Jews
lose their lives and tens of thousands are arrested and sent to concentration
camps.;

Whereas Nazi Germany and their collaborators killed six
million European Jews and millions of others as part of their Final
Solution;

Whereas by invoking the specter of Joseph Goebbels, the
Representative from Florida, Mr. West, thoroughly belittles the horrors and
suffering experienced by the victims and survivors of the Holocaust;

Whereas the American Jewish Committee issued a December
15, 2011, statement saying To make a linkage between any mainstream
political party in the United States and the heinous atrocities committed by
the Third Reich should be simply beyond the pale, whatever political
differences may arise in a heated electoral season … By invoking the image of
Joseph Goebbels and the Gestapo, Representative West has displayed a complete
lack of understanding of the worst genocidal era in human history. Moreover, he
has diminished and trivialized the unique evil perpetrated by the Third Reich
through his unfortunate use of language;

Whereas the Anti-Defamation League said in a December 16,
2011, letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, We were
deeply dismayed by Rep. West’s remark comparing the Democratic Party’s attempts
to articulate views to the American people through the media to the efforts of
the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels … Such outrageous Holocaust
analogies have no place in our political dialogue. They are offensive, they
trivialize real historical events, and they diminish the memory of the six
million Jews and millions of others who perished in the
Holocaust;

Whereas the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers,
wrote in a letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, that the
Representative from Florida should help raise the level of congressional
discourse in a vigorous debate;

Whereas the Representative from Florida, Mr. West,
responded back in a letter to the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers,
that The Democrat Party does indeed have a vicious propaganda machine,
it espouses lies and deceit and the Master of deceptive information would be
truly proud;

Whereas in the repetition of this abhorrent and outrageous
sentiment to the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, the Representative
from Florida, Mr. West, demonstrates not only the willful and malicious
misapplication of history, but also his disdain for the decorum of the
Congress; and

Whereas the conduct of the Representative from Florida was
repugnant: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives
disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, for
bringing discredit to the House by offending the memory of those who died
during the Holocaust.